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Wednesday, September 4, 2019

What Is It About Storms That Turns Politicians into Morons?

For reasons unknown, the President decided to interject himself -- again -- into the forecast for Hurricane Dorian. He displayed a completely out-of-date forecast. Then, to make it worse, the President decided to "play meteorologist." Look closely at my annotation (below) to the above image, in pink.

Our President decided to make his own hurricane forecast by drawing a black line that extended the forecast area (a/k/a "the cone") into Alabama. This was likely to give him cover for his silly statement that the storm was headed for Alabama. We covered that Sunday.

They say, "the coverup is worse than the crime." As the chattering class is reporting (gleefully, in many cases) it is illegal for anyone to misrepresent a National Weather Service forecast.

Some are calling for the President to be charged with a crime. Of course, as head of the executive branch of the federal government (under which the NWS falls), the President can order an NWS meteorologist to forecast anything the President wants. The NWS meteorologist can comply or resign.

That said, this was a stupid, stupid, stupid thing to do. Not only does it show President Trump to be dishonest on this topic, it could, in theory, put peoples' lives in danger if there is confusion as to where a hurricane is going.

The orange link (above) demonstrates that other politicians have done similar dumb things pertaining to storms (and not apologized). But, this one is different because it reveals a deliberate misrepresentation.

The fact is that politicians should stop playing meteorologist. Now!! Forever!!